Bombora Teachers Notes

A S T U D Y G U I D E b y K AT E R AY N O R
http://www.metromagazine.com.au
http://www.theeducationshop.com.au
Above: Archive photo of surfer. Photograph by John Witzig. © John Witzig. • Below: Graphic element used in Bombora
featuring an archive photo of surfer Nat Young with friends in 1972 at Bells Beach in Victoria. ‘Nat and the Girls’ photo by
John Witzig. • Cover image courtesy John Witzig. © John Witzig.
Pretty much since the time I first jumped on a surfboard, I always thought that
something special was going to happen to me. I didn’t know what it was, but I
always thought there was going to be something special around each corner.
– Midget Farrelly
It’s such a beautiful thing to be able to do with your life. To be able to waste
it and be a beach bum is just such a privilege, you know what I mean? It’s all
surfing, you know, even the way I drive my car is surfing, really.
– Barton Lynch
W
according to some the greatest surfer of all time;
and the women who helped to transform the aggressive, drug-riddled culture of the 1980s, Pam
Burridge and Layne Beachley.
The series comprises two 55-minute episodes. Episode 1 traces the emergence of surfing in Australia
up until 1964, when the World Surfing Championships were held here and it was a clean sweep for
the locals. Episode 2 looks back at the counter
culture the surfies created, their hippie values and
the impact of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. It explores
the many great achievements of the new breed of
professional surfers, as well as detailing changes
in technology and the industries that surfing
spawned.
SCREEN EDUCATION
ith their archival style documentary
series, Bombora, filmmakers Paul Clarke,
Nick Carroll and Greg Appel have created
a wildly entertaining account of surfing in Australia. This is social history at its best: passionate,
detailed and thought-provoking. It features a vivid
cast of champion surfers, mystics, entrepreneurs,
pioneers, mavericks, forgotten stars and legends:
all with stories to tell that reveal something special
at the heart of our national identity and our spirit
of place. Delving back into the history of the sport
and the times in which it established its popularity,
the series introduces us to wonderful characters
such as Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern
surfing, and Isabel Letham, who loved to surf naked in Bilgola in the mid-1910s. Later generations
are represented by stars such as Michael Peterson,
2
a day if you want and not get bored.
– writer for Tracks magazine
• Class brainstorm: compile a list of words associated with surfers and surfing (for example, rebellion, escape, freedom, non-conformity, drop-out).
• Draw and label a diagram of a stereotypical
surfer.
Surfer Terry Fitzgerald (star of the 1971 surf film Morning of the
Earth) with a quiver of boards painted in his trademark psychedelic
design. Photo courtesy Terry Fitzgerald. © Terry Fitzgerald.
Curriculum Links
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing has
relevance to Australian History, Sport, Australian Studies, Cultural Studies, Business Studies,
English and Media. It would be appropriate and engaging for mature secondary school students. The
series has received an M (recommended for mature
audiences) classification from the OFLC with the
consumer advice: Infrequent coarse language.
Viewers are advised that the program also contains
nudity and references to drug use.
Above: Bombora
filmmakers Paul
Clarke, Nick Carroll
and Greg Appel with
an old solid wooden
surfboard on the
beach. Photo by Anna
Howard. © Screen
Australia.
Below: Photo from the
early 1900s of Isabel
Letham, who first
surfed with Duke in
a demonstration of
the sport, and who
later became our
first champion. Image
courtesy Warringah
Shire Library.
Screen Australia has made an ‘education’ version
of Episode 2. It differs from the broadcast version
in the following ways:
• a depiction of a drug-taking implement has been
replaced
• the coarsest language has been ‘bleeped’
• scenes of full-frontal nudity have been replaced.
About This Guide
The main aim of this guide is to present a wide variety of teaching and learning opportunities based on
the series, ranging in sophistication and complexity. Teachers are encouraged to pick and choose
tasks that suit the particular interests and abilities
of their students – not to work through the guide
systematically. Most of the activities target literacy:
speaking and listening, reading and writing. There
are also activities that address film analysis, ICT
and creative thinking. Teachers may choose to
present a selection of appropriate activities as a
matrix, with students given the responsibility to
complete a set number of tasks.
Once there’s an involvement with the sea it’s so
strong that it just completely grips your whole head
and you can just talk about it for twenty-four hours
• Construct a ‘family tree’ of Australian surfing,
showing the different generations and identifying
the most influential surfers in our history.
• Create a glossary of surfing terms: teachers
could award a prize for the most extensive, detailed listing. Illustrations and diagrams could be
used to accompany the definitions.
• Define the term ‘global surfing culture’. What is
‘soul surfing’? What was a ‘surfie chick’? What
is an ‘outlaw surfer’? What is a ‘westie’ and why
were they so loathed by ‘locals’?
• Make a poster presenting ten surfing ‘dos’ and
‘don’ts’. You may wish to refer to the Surfrider
Foundation website for suggestions <http://www.
surfrider.org.au>. This site includes Tribal Law &
Etiquette sections.
• Compare and contrast the surfboards of the
1930s with those used today. Draw and label
a surfboard, annotating the design features.
Research and write an account of engineering
innovations in the history of the surfboard. Define
relevant terms such as vee bottoms, concaves,
rocker profiles, epoxy.
• Design your own image for a surfboard or panel
van.
• Many of the surfers in this series have nicknames: Jack ‘Bluey’ Mayes; Keith ‘Spaz’ Hurst;
David ‘The Mexican’ Sumpter; Bernard ‘Midget’
Farrelly. Devise similar nicknames for you and
your friends, with explanatory illustrations.
• What can you find out about how surfing competitions are judged?
Riding the Wave: Exploring Surfing
& Spirit of Place
I know that when I’ve been surfing, I’ve got a
certain sort of level of calmness to me, and when
SCREEN EDUCATION
ACTIVITIES & DISCUSSION POINTS
Let’s Go Surfing
• Construct a timeline of the history of surfing, using your notes from the screening of this series.
Try to include as much relevant detail as possible and consider novel ways of presenting your
timeline. Consider some of the key moments in
the timeline presented in this guide (see page 10).
3
I’ve hit the ocean, even in its presence at the
shore, and especially by a powerful surf, I’ve been
put in my place as a person. That’s what I think
people sense when they get hooked by surfing,
hooked by their relationship with the ocean. All
of a sudden they’re part of something that’s a lot
bigger than them.
– Tom Carroll
Australia’s greatest swimmer, befriended Duke
Kahanamoku, Hawaii’s greatest surfer.
• Write an account of Duke’s trip to Australia in
1914 and his impact on surfing in Australia.
• Is surfing a sport, an art, a culture, a lifestyle or
a religion? Make an argument for one of these
positions and present it to the class.
• Tim Winton talks about surfing in terms of immersion in the ‘eternal present tense’, and for
him and many other surfers it is a ‘spiritual experience’. Several times, surfing is identified with
the concept of ‘freedom’. What does freedom
mean to you? What makes you feel free? Midget
Farrelly talks about ‘freedom from other people’s
ideas’. Do you think other people’s ideas keep
you in check? What ideas would you like to be
free from?
Above: Phyllis
O’Donnell, winner
of the inaugural
women’s World
Championship Surfing
title held in 1964
at Manly Beach.
Photograph by Anna
Howard. © Screen
Australia.
• What does it mean to describe surfing as a ‘cultural phenomenon’?
Below: Part of a
graphic element used
in Bombora.
• Do you have to be a surfer to really understand
the appeal of surfing?
• Is there such a thing as The Perfect Wave?
• Choose one of the legends of Australian surfing
and write a brief biographical sketch of them.
This could be presented as a PowerPoint presentation, incorporating appropriate images from
the internet. Possible candidates included in this
series include: Isabel Letham, Midget Farrelly,
Nat Young, Phyllis O’Donnell, Bob McTavish,
Michael Peterson, Tom Carroll, Barton Lynch,
Wayne Bartholomew, Mark Richards, Mark Occhilupo, Bob Pike, Wayne Lynch, Layne Beachley
and Pam Burridge.
• Surfing is now a major tourist attraction. Label
a map of the world with popular surfing holiday
destinations.
• Why did Hawaii become ‘a rite of passage for
young Australians’? Bob Pike says that when he
arrived in Hawaii he felt ‘tapped into his umbilical
cord’. What aspects of Australian culture did he
feel alienated from?
• Why did Rabbit’s behaviour offend the Hawaiian
sense of Aloha?
• What does it mean to ‘drop out’?
• Why might surfboard designer Gordon Woods
be ‘proud to be regarded as a bum’?
• What does Nat Young mean when he says of
Kuta Beach in Bali, ‘Surfers created that place’?
• What might a ‘greenie Garden of Eden’ actually
be like?
• The narration states that ‘The Balinese experience gave surfing a new aesthetic’. Describe that
aesthetic. How was it a shift?
• Who was Captain Goodvibes?
Surfing & Social History
• How important is danger and risk to the attraction of surfing? Consider Rob Conneeley’s
statement, ‘Surfing was just terror’ and Phil
Jarratt’s comment, ‘It was cool to be a surfer/
druggie’.
Surfing came to us from a place that was totally
out of sync with any of Australia’s other cultural
wellsprings; it came straight from the middle of the
Pacific Ocean. This is a history of something we’ve
got that’s not European. It allowed Australians to
become unique and not tied up with the apron
strings of the Empire.
– Nick Carroll
• Discuss what Wayne Lynch means when he
says:
We almost kind of mythologised those places.
They became more than just a surf break. It was
… there was something of a spirit of that place
that you’d sort of jump into and kind of infused
into your being.
Of History & Legends & the Global
Surf Safari
• Describe the circumstances in which Cec Healy,
• Social history such as this series can provide
opportunities to explore broader issues. Consider the topic of ‘blackbirding’, briefly raised in
Bombora in connection to Tommy Tanna. Explain
what blackbirding was and its implications for
Australian relations with neighbouring countries.
SCREEN EDUCATION
• Explore the links between surfers and environmentalists.
• Implicit in this film is an assumption that surfing,
its history and culture, reveals something fundamental about the Australian identity. Compile
a list of other topics that might be considered
similarly representative. Do you agree with the
statement that surfing is ‘central to Australian
culture’?
4
• Shanty towns sprang up along the coast during
the Great Depression. Why might the beach have
been particularly important during this time?
• The narration notes that the rise in popularity of
surfing in the 1920s and 1930s coincided with
a broader social emphasis on ‘vigorous outdoor
activities’. Do you think that in general our society is more or less active now? What factors play
a part in your opinion?
• Describe the peculiar resuscitation measures we
see footage of from the 1930s.
• Choose a life saving club near you (if possible)
and research its history. Present your findings to
the class.
• The narrator says that beneath a serious veneer,
the first life savers were really ‘boys behaving
badly’. What do you think is meant by this? What
does it mean to say, ‘The sea set the larrikin spirit
free’?
• Discuss the impact of the Second World War on
the surf life saving clubs. (The narration states
that after the war the clubs took on military overtones, and when life saving ‘lost its sense of fun’,
the split between surfers and life savers became
increasingly pronounced.)
• How did surfing fit with the 1950s youth culture?
• Define the idea of a subculture. In what ways has
surfing been a subculture? Is it still a subculture
or is it too popular with mainstream Australia to
fit your definition of a subculture? Make a list of
other subcultures. Do you belong to any subcultures? What do you get from this experience and
identity?
• Consider expressions such as Big Wave Hunters,
Surf Safari, The Wild Man Phase, Hell Men. Could
an argument be made that surfing is at its heart a
culture of machismo? Try to approach this topic
from all angles. Consider the many high profile
Australian women surfers; and also Tim Winton’s
poetic observation that in surfing he saw ‘men
doing something beautiful – an interesting way of
being a bloke’. Explore the image of masculinity
encompassed in the surfer. Consider also Midget
Farrelly’s comment that his childhood ballet lessons stood him in good stead as a surfer.
• What did Wayne Lynch do when he was conscripted during the Vietnam War?
• Why were the beaches of the 1980s described as
‘bogan battlefields’?
• What does Pam Burridge mean when she says, ‘I
didn’t get any sexism, I just got grommet-ism’?
SCREEN EDUCATION
Hawaiian surfer Duke
Kahanamoku who kickstarted surfing’s
roll to popularity
in Australia in 1914.
Image courtesy of
the State Library of
Queensland.
5
World Champion surfer Nat Young shooting down the
line at a break called ‘Rights and Lefts’ in California
in 1966. Photographer John Witzig. © John Witzig.
• Is there something about the Australian national
character that makes surfing particularly attractive? How did surfing become part of ‘the
national psyche’?
• Nat Young talks about a mass exodus from the
cities and suburbs in the late 1960s and news
footage from the time shows an earnest, bespectacled reporter questioning a surfer, ‘What is it
that you are trying to get away from by being a
surfer?’ Write and perform a poetic-style monologue responding to this query, using information
you have about the background of the times, the
conflicts and key issues – what the series refers
to as ‘the bleak backdrop of the adult world’.
Surfing as Culture
• Write a review of an Australian surfing magazine.
Include excerpts from the magazine of your
choice to back up your evaluation.
• Write a review of one of the surfing websites
listed in the Resources section at the end of this
guide. Include commentary about the quality
and range of information, sources of information,
details about contributors, visual layout, ease of
navigation, hyperlinks, etc.
• Tim Winton’s novel, Breath, is about surfing.
Read an extract to the class. What is he saying
about Australian men and surf?
• Choose one of Ray Leighton’s famous photographs of surfing at Manly Beach sixty years ago
and write a story to accompany the photograph.
(See <http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an14035743>.)
• Describe the aesthetic and narrative conventions
of the surf film genre.
Above: Mark Occhilupo
(1999 World Surfing
Champion) on location
in Coolangatta,
Queensland.
Photograph by Anna
Howard. © Screen
Australia.
Below: Part of a
graphic element used
in Bombora series.
‘Fresh Mullet’ photo
by John Witzig. © John
Witzig.
• What image of surfing did the Gidget movies
present? Imagine you are a hardcore, big wave
rider: write a scathing review of one of the Gidget
films.
• What image of surfing did Puberty Blues (Bruce
Beresford, 1981) present?
In the Pipeline: More Creative
Writing Options
• Write an account of one of your favourite beach
memories.
• Make a list of the dangers associated with the
beach. Write a short story of a dangerous experience by the sea.
• This series claims that at a certain point, ‘the
beach replaced the bush as our spirit of place’.
Set up a ‘compare and contrast’ chart, exploring
the different meanings we attach to The Bush
and The Beach. Do you have a place that holds
deep meaning for you?
• Write a surf report for a surf beach near you,
advising surfers of conditions.
• Imagine you are the compère for a big surf competition: write and perform an account of a battle
between two top surfers. Consider your use of
language to make it exciting, suspenseful, evocative and gripping for your audience.
SCREEN EDUCATION
• Imagine you are the director of a surfing film
festival. Make a list of the films you would screen
and write program notes to invite viewers and
explain your choices. (For an extensive list of
surf films, see <http://www.surfresearch.com.au/
rf.html>.)
Surfer Wayne Lynch
– pioneer of the wild
southern coast – surfing
in to shore at Lorne in
Victoria. Photographer
John Witzig. © John Witzig.
6
Archive photo of two surfers sitting
on their malibus looking at the surf.
photographer John Witzig. © John Witzig.
Archive photo titled ‘Nat and the Girls’ in 1972 at Bells Beach in
Victoria. photographer John Witzig. © John Witzig.
nect strongly with an international audience?
• Consider the series title. Make a list of other possible titles.
• When Nat Young reached the top ranks of competitive surfing, he unexpectedly dropped out,
saying ‘it just seems to me to be a crock of shit’.
Write an open letter to your fans, as if you were
Nat Young, explaining your decision.
• This series is filled with wonderful anecdotes
about great adventures, unlikely victories, stowaway trips to Hawaii, improbable journeys in surfboats from Bondi to Coolangatta. Choose one of
these stories and set it out as a storyboard/comic
strip.
Bombora as Media Text
• Analyse the series’ credit sequence.
• Compile a list of all the materials used in this
series (for example, interview/talking heads,
newsreel footage, still photographs, dramatic reenactments).
• Imagine you are a producer, seeking funding for
this project. Write an outline of your intentions,
the purpose and value of the series.
• Design a poster to promote this series. Annotate
your design choices, font, colour scheme, layout,
etc. How would you select a representative
image/s?
• Write a fifty-word synopsis of the series to be
published in a television guide.
• Who is the audience for this series? Would it con-
• Discuss the filmmakers’ choice of Jack Thompson as narrator. What associations does he bring
with him?
• Compile a list of the people consulted and presented in the making of this series, detailing their
areas of expertise.
Tim Winton
Layne Beachley
Bernard ‘Midget’
Farrelly
Nat Young
Wayne ‘Rabbit’
Bartholomew
Mark Richards
Barton Lynch
Pam Burridge
Mark Occhilupo
Wayne Lynch
Doug Warbrick
Alan Green
Nick Carroll
Ray Moran
Kathy Lette,
Gabrielle Carey
Professor Richard
Waterhouse
Bob McTavish
Gordon Woods
John Witzig
Paul Paterson
Big Wave Rider Paul
Paterson. Photograph
by Anna Howard. ©
Screen Australia.
surfer/author
World Surfing Champion 1998–2003, 2006
inaugural World Surfing Champion 1964
World Surfing Champion 1966, 1970, Longboard
Champion 1988–1990
World Surfing Champion 1978
World Surfing Champion 1979–1982
World Surfing Champion 1988
World Surfing Champion 1990
World Surfing Champion 1999
Surfing Champion
co-founder Rip Curl
co-founder Quiksilver
surfer/writer
surfing historian
authors of Puberty Blues
historian
surfer/boardmaker
surfboard designer
Tracks magazine founder
big wave rider
SCREEN EDUCATION
• Write a review of the series to be published in a
daily newspaper.
• Consider the use of music. What does it add to
the presentation? Choose a track and analyse
the way it functions in the context of the images.
What can you find out about the surf music
genre?
7
Comprehension Questions
(NB: While comprehension is somewhat out of
favour given its status in Bloom’s Taxonomy as a
lower-order thinking skill, it remains a useful way
to quickly review significant historical and factual
details, while also motivating students to pay attention and take relevant, detailed notes during
screenings. All the information required to answer
the following simple questions is presented in the
series.)
Questions
1. What does bombora mean?
the 1960s?
16.Why is Bob Evans important in the Australian
history of surfing?
17.In what year were the surfing World Championships held in Australia for the first time and
where were they held? What were the results?
18.Name some of the places around Australia
mentioned in the program where life saving
clubs were established. (Five places are mentioned.)
19.According to the program, who invented the
roof rack?
2. Where did surfing originate?
3. What were the nuisance inspectors and why
were there laws against beach swimming in
daylight hours?
20.In what year were the Pacific Games held in
Honolulu and how many Australians attended?
21.What happened to Bob Pike when he first tried
to surf the legendary Hawaiian Pipeline?
4. Who was Tommy Tanna?
5. What is a grommet?
22.When did Midget Farrelly win the prestigious
Makaha International and why was this significant?
6. When were the prohibitive bathing laws
dropped?
23.Why was Nat Young called The Animal?
7. There were many deaths by drowning in the
first summer of legalised swimming. How did
authorities respond to this?
24.What did Alan Green ask Jeff Hakman to do
in order to win the rights to export Quiksilver
products into the American market?
8. What was the significance of the Sly Family of
Manly?
25.Who trademarked the ugg boot?
9. What medal did Manly surf life saver Cec Healy
win at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912?
10.How old was Isabel Letham when she volunteered to go out in the surf with Duke and what
impact did the experience have on her?
Above: Surfer and
author Tim Winton.
Photograph by Anna
Howard. © Screen
Australia.
Below: Part of a
graphic element used
in Bombora series.
‘Fresh Mullet’ photo
by John Witzig. © John
Witzig.
Answers
1. Bombora is the Aboriginal word for the
sound of a wave crashing on an outer reef,
and it conjures images of the ocean at its
most powerful.
2. Polynesia
11.The program tells us that board-riding championships took off in the 1920s, and that it was
very competitive. What unusual strategy did
Charles ‘Snowy’ McAlister employ on one occasion to clinch the Australian title?
12.When was shark meshing introduced?
13.During World War Two, the beaches were
covered in barbed wire. How does Dick Evans
describe getting out to the surf?
3. The nuisance inspectors patrolled the
beach, because of concerns about breaches of decorum and decency.
4. Tommy Tanna was the first person to body
surf in Australia (in the 1880s).
5. A grommet is a young surfer, ‘stoked on
life’.
6. 1903
15.What official measures exacerbated ill feeling between life savers and surfers during
7. The authorities responded to the public
safety issue by employing professional
lifeguards; later, volunteer life saving clubs
were established.
8. The Sly Family were the first paid life savers,
SCREEN EDUCATION
14.In 1956, the US Life Saving Team came to
Australia to demonstrate their surfing skills at
the Olympics. What was significant about their
surfboards?
8
Top: Archive photograph titled ‘Bob
mcTavish and the ‘48 Holden’ taken in
Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in
1966. Photo by John Witzig. © John Witzig.
Below: Surfing historian Ray Moran with
some of the boards he’s collected at
the Australian Surfing Museum in Manly.
Photo by Ian Barry. © Screen Australia.
using a whaling boat to rescue swimmers in
distress.
9. Healy won silver; Duke Kahanamoku won
gold.
10.She was 15 and it transformed her life forever: she became a passionate advocate of
surfing and of Duke.
18.Coolangatta, Yamba, Bondi, St Kilda &
Cottesloe
19.Harry McLaren
20.They were held in 1939, and twenty-eight
Australian surfers attended.
21.He hit the shallow coral bottom and broke
his ribs and collarbone.
11.He rode his board standing on his head!
12.1936
22.Midget won in 1962. He was only seventeen
years old and he was the first non-Hawaiian
to win it.
13.He says soldiers dug a tunnel for them.
14.They were made out of balsa, which made
them much lighter and more manoeuvrable.
23.He was nicknamed The Animal because he
was ‘ultra-competitive’, ‘big and arrogant’.
24.He asked him to eat a doily!
15.Councils demanded that surfboards be registered, charging a five pound fee for this,
and life savers patrolled and regulated the
surfers.
16.He was our first surfing entrepreneur, setting
up a surf organisation, establishing Surfing
World magazine, and shooting and screening surfing films.
17.They were held in April 1964, at Manly, and
Australians won every division.
Topics To Pursue
The following statements are deliberately intended
to be provocative or controversial and can be used
in a number of ways: as the focus for discussion,
debate or oral presentations; and as a direction for
further research, analysis or creative writing tasks.
• ‘The ill-feeling between surfers and life savers
SCREEN EDUCATION
Above: Barton
Lynch (1988 World
Surfing Champion)
at Freshwater Beach
in Sydney. Photo by
Ian Barry. © Screen
Australia.
25.Shane Stedman (trademarked UGHTM)
9
took shape around conflicting attitudes to the
notions of duty and pleasure.’
allow surfers to turn and manoeuvre.
1961 Dave Jackman successfully surfs the
heaviest wave then known, the Queenscliff
Bombora.
• ‘Surfing is not what it was: it lost its heart and
soul when it became big business.’
• ‘From the 1980s on, surfing was reduced to a
triumph of marketing, just another avenue for
consumption.’
1962 Midget Farrelly wins the Makaha
International, a first for a non-Hawaiian.
1964 Midget Farrelly wins the inaugural World Surfing Championship at Sydney’s Manly Beach.
• ‘Surfing is fundamentally a celebration of
hedonism.’
1966 Nat Young wins the World Surfing
Championship in San Diego, then quits
competition, joining an exodus of people
dropping out of city life.
• ‘From the time of the Vietnam War, the story
of surfing pulls in two different directions:
drug-taking drop-outs and money-making
entrepreneurs.’
1970 The first issue of Tracks is published in
Australia.
• ‘The professionalisation of surfing is almost a
contradiction in terms: it compromises all that
is most joyous and liberating about surfing.’
1972 Morning of the Earth (Albert Falzon, 1971)
breaks through as the first surf film depicting
the nomadic life of Australian surfers and Bali
takes off as a surf destination.
• ‘The surfer sees the world differently.’
• ‘The original hippie pioneers who went
searching for perfection have been swamped
by the masses from which they were looking to
escape.’
• ‘The best aspect of this series is that in charting
the story of Australian surfing, it shows us how
much the world has changed. In one sense, the
story of surfing is in fact the story of Australia,
the country it once was and the country it has
become.’
1974 Michael Peterson wins every major Australian
surfing contest.
Part of a graphic
element used in
Bombora. Duke
photo courtesy
State Library of
Queensland.
Late 1970s early 1980s
Mark Richards and Tom Carroll lead the
charge towards professionalism, establishing
board-rider clubs and shunning drugs.
1982 Puberty Blues puts the suburban surf scene
onto the big screen.
Timeline of Key Surfing
Moments in Australia
1990 Pam Burridge wins a World Surfing
Championship.
1830s Laws are introduced to ban beach swimming
during daylight hours.
2006 Layne Beachley wins her seventh World
Surfing Championship.
1903 Beach bathing is legalised. Life saving clubs
begin to form after numerous accidental
drownings.
Resources
1914 Champion Hawaiian swimmer Duke
Kahanamoku visits Australia and triggers a
surfboard-riding boom.
Websites
Bombora – The Story of Australian Surfing
showcase page (includes trailer)
http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/showcases/
bombora
1924 Claude West wins the first Australian boardriding championship.
Coastalwatch
1936 Shark meshing is introduced to Australian
beaches.
Manly Life Saving Club
1939 A team of twenty-eight Australian surfers
attends the Pacific Games in Hawaii.
International Surfing Association – the world
governing body of surfing, with its members being
nationally recognised organising bodies by their
respective governments
http://www.manlylsc.com
http://www.isasurf.org
SCREEN EDUCATION
1956 The US Lifeguard team visits Australia to
demonstrate new smaller surfboards, which
http://www.coastalwatch.com
10
Ray Leighton Collection: Surfing at Manly Beach,
New South Wales, 1938-46, four photographs
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an14035743
Surf Info: Australian Surfing Database
http://www.surfinfo.com.au
Surf Research – terrific bibliography and filmography
http://www.surfresearch.com.au
Surf World – The World’s Largest Surfing Museum.
This site includes VELS-related education programs for all levels of schooling, with a range of
activities and background information packs that
would work very well in conjunction with this guide.
Highly recommended for teachers and students.
http://www.surfworld.org.au
Surf Writer Tim Baker website, includes links worth
pursuing
http://www.bytimbaker.com
Surfing Australia – the national governing body for
the sport of surfing in Australia
http://www.surfingaustralia.com.au
Surfrider Foundation Australia - a not-for-profit
organisation dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves and beaches for
all people; includes Surfriders’ Code, Surf Etiquette
& Surf Safety
http://www.surfrider.org.au
Swellnet
http://www.swellnet.com.au
Books
Shane Stedman
(inventor of Ugh
boots and Coolite
foam surfboards).
Photo by Anna
Howard. © Screen
Australia.
Chris Ahrens, Good Things Love Water: A
Collection of Surf Stories, Chubasco Publishing
Company, California, 1994.
Chris Ahrens, Joyrides: Surf Stories Volume Two,
Chubasco Publishing Company, California, 1999.
Jim Allen, Locked In – Surfing for Life, AS Barnes &
Co, New Jersey, 1970.
Alan Atkins (ed.), The Basics of Surfing, The Australian Surfriders Association, Torquay, 1986.
Tim Baker, High Surf: The World’s Most Inspiring
Surfers, Pymble, HarperSports Books, 2007.
Fiona Capp, That Oceanic Feeling, Allen & Unwin,
Crows Nest, 2005.
Nick Carroll, Fearlessness, Chronicle Books, 2007.
Tom Carroll, Tom Carroll’s Surfing the World,
Lester-Townsend, Paddington, 1990.
Pauline Curby, Freshie: Freshwater Surf Life Saving
Club – The First 100 Years, University of New South
Wales Press, Sydney, 2007.
Sean Doherty, MP: The Life of Michael Peterson,
HarperCollins, Pymble, 2007.
Midget (Bernard) Farrelly (as told to Craig McGregor), This Surfing Life, Rigby, Adelaide, 1965.
Matt Griggs, Surfers, HarperCollins, Pymble, 2007.
Phil Jarratt, The Mountain and the Wave: The Quiksilver Story, Quiksilver Entertainment, Huntington
Beach, California, 2006.
Richard Loveridge & Andrew Bradsworth, A Guide
to the Surf Beaches of Victoria, Lothian, Melbourne, 1987.
Brian J. Lowdon & Margaret Lowdon, Competitive
Surfing: A Dedicated Approach, Mouvement Publications, Torquay, 1988.
Frank Margan & Ben R. Finney, A Pictorial History
of Surfing, Hamlyn, Sydney, 1970
C Bede Maxwell, Surf: Australians Against the Sea,
Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1949.
Kent Pearson, Surfing Subcultures of Australia and
New Zealand, University of Queensland Press, St
Lucia, 1979.
Kelly Slater, Pipe Dreams: A Surfer’s Journey,
Harper Collins, Sydney, 2004.
Albie Thoms, Surfmovies: The History of the Surf
Film in Australia, Shore Thing, Noosa Heads, 2000.
Murray Walding, Blue Heaven: The Story of Australian Surfing, Hardie Grant, South Yarra, 2003.
Murray Walding, Surf-O-Rama: Treasures of
Australian Surfing, The Miegunyah Press, Carlton,
2008.
Mark Warren, Atlas of Australian Surfing, Angus &
Robertson, North Ryde, 1988.
Matt Warshaw, The Encyclopaedia of Surfing, Harcourt, Orlando, Florida, 2003.
Tim Winton, Breath, Penguin Books Australia, Melbourne, 2008, (website at <http://breath.timwinton.
com.au>).
Nat Young, The History of Surfing, Palm Beach
Press, Angourie, 1994.
SCREEN EDUCATION
Nick Carroll, A Complete Guide to Surfing Your
Best Volume 2, Chronicle Books, 2008.
Nick Carroll (ed.), The Next Wave: A Survey of
World Surfing, Collins Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1991.
11
Bombora – The Story
of Australian Surfing
Directors
Paul Clarke (Episode 1), Greg Appel
(Episode 2)
ProducerS
Paul Clarke, Greg Appel
WriterS
Paul Clarke (Episodes 1 & 2), Nick
Carroll (Episodes 1 & 2), Greg Appel
(Episode 2)
Executive Producer for Screen
Australia
Film crew shooting an interview for Bombora.
Photograph by Anna Howard. © Screen
Australia.
Magazines
Australia’s Surfing Life
http://www.surfinglife.com.au
Switch–Foot Zine
http://www.switch-foot.com
Tracks
http://www.tracksmag.com
Waves Surfing Magazine
http://wavesmag.com.au
Films
Bra Boys (Sunny Abberton, 2007)
http://www.braboys.com.au
Puberty Blues
Clips at <http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/
puberty-blues>
Endless Summer (Bruce Brown, 1966)
Morning of the Earth
Clips at <http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/
morning-earth>
Penny Robins
Executive Producer for
Bombora Film & Music Co
Paul Clarke
Narrator
Jack Thompson
Year
2009
Duration
2 x 55 minutes
For program sales and further
information, contact:
Screen Australia
Sales Office
GPO Box 3984
Sydney NSW 2001
tel 02 8113 1064
tollfree 1800 213 099
fax 02 9357 1392
toll free 1800 077 471
sales@screenaustralia.gov.au
http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au
Big Wednesday (John Milius, 1978)
Innermost Limits of Pure Fun (George Greenough,
1969)
Getting Back to Nothing (Tim Burstall, 1970)
SCREEN EDUCATION
12
Above: Graphic element used in the Bombora series featuring a phto c.1972 of a surfer walking down a sandy track to the
Angourie point break in northern NSW. ‘Fresh Mullet’ photo by John Witzig. © John Witzig.
This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM & Screen Australia)
editor@atom.org.au
For more information on Screen Education magazine,
or to download other free study guides,
visit <http://www.metromagazine.com.au>.
For hundreds of articles on Film as Text,
Screen Literacy, Multiliteracy and Media Studies,
visit <http://www.theeducationshop.com.au>.